Top Items:
Apple:
Apple Media Advisory — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: — Team, — I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues …
Discussion:
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Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Steve Jobs Steps Down For Health Reasons (AAPL) — Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. Apple COO Tim Cook will take over for Steve until then. Apple shares are down about 7% in after-hours trading. — The Latest: — Apple Without Jobs: Fine For Now, But...
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Agence France Presse, Guardian, Gizmodo, CNBC.com, Associated Press, Reuters, Ars Technica, The Register, Beyond Binary, eWeek, Open Sources, Digital Daily, Epicenter, Hardware 2.0, TechCrunch UK, Forbes, VentureBeat, paidContent.org, Gawker, Tech Confidential, louisgray.com, Boy Genius Report, GigaOM, L.A. Times Tech Blog, InformationWeek, Computerworld, Bloomberg, CNET News, MediaFile, The Toybox, WinExtra, Coolest Gadgets, Apple 2.0, Bits, Engadget and Digits
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
CNBC's Jim Goldman Now Says Steve Jobs In Denial. So Is Jim Goldman. (AAPL) — CNBC reporter Jim Goldman says an “extremely well known” technology industry executive “part of Jobs' circle” told him that Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs is “in a state of denial” about his health.
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave — Just a week after reassuring investors and employees about his health, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs disclosed he has a “more complex” medical condition and would take a leave of absence until the end of June.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
The cost of a “complex” Jobs health issue: About $6 billion (so far) — It should come as no shock that Apple's stock is tanking following chief executive Steve Jobs' announcement that he was taking a medical leave of absence until June to get to the bottom of his “complex” health issue.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
You are an idiot if you sell your Apple stock tomorrow — It's too late to sell your Apple stock. If you sold it today, you are a genius. But tomorrow? You'll be the biggest loser. — Why? Apple has the best team, the best distribution, the best supply chain, the best management in the business.
Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Steve: Give It To Us Straight — What should we believe about Steve Jobs' health? — SAN FRANCISCO—Several years back, Steve Jobs took liberties with securities laws by becoming personally involved in the backdating of Apple stock options. Unlike other tech CEOs, who lost their jobs …
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Google's Loss of Innocence: 100 Jobs Cut — The Magical Kingdom of Larry and Sergey has laid off 100 full-time recruiters, a tipster tells us. Inevitable, given the economy. But a crushing blow to Google's self-image as a kinder-than-thou employer. — In the last dotcom bust …
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L.A. Times Tech Blog
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Laszlo Bock / The Official Google Blog:
Changes to recruiting — As we made clear during our last quarterly earnings call in October, Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate. Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring. — Our first step to address this was to wind down almost …
Discussion:
TechFlash, Tech Beat, Bits, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, CNET News and Between the Lines
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku — Google's announced they're closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of an already continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
The Netbook Hackintosh Video Apple Is Suing Wired For — Gadget Lab writer and Giz friend Brian X. Chen reveals via Twitter that Apple “is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking netbooks to run Mac OS X.” — Brian actually loaned his personal MSI Wind Hackintosh for the Giz Gallery.
Discussion:
CNET News, AppleInsider, The Toybox, Macworld, Pulse2, Liliputing, Boing Boing Gadgets and CrunchGear
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
As raw as it gets - Skype legend Morten Lund bankrupt — Morten Lund, an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark, might just be the real Rock-'n Roll entrepreneur. Yesterday he was declared personally bankrupt by the Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court after losing 10M Krona in an investment …
Arn / MacRumors:
Snow Leopard to Bring Unifying ‘Marble’ User Interface? — Last year, Apple announced that they will be releasing the next major revision of Mac OS X (10.6 Snow Leopard) in 2009. The focus of Snow Leopard has been on performance and quality of the underlying codebase rather than introducing new end-user features.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Nick Wingfield / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Is Exploring Job Cuts — Microsoft Corp. is seriously exploring significant work force reductions that could be announced as early as next week, in a sign that the weak economy is prompting tough decisions even at one of the steadiest ships in the technology industry.
YouTube Blog:
User Choice and Music Licensing — Music licensing can get very complicated, but we try to make your experience as simple as possible. We want you to have options when uploading videos with music in them. And if your video is subject to a copyright claim, you should have some choices too.
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Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:YouTube Now Mutes Videos With Unauthorized Copyrighted Music
Discussion:
Techdirt, TechCrunch, CNET News, Epicenter, ReadWriteWeb, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Obsessable, broadstuff, bub.blicio.us and CircleID
Pal Takacsi / Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Send & Archive — In addition to having two cappuccinos, my morning routine includes processing new mail that's arrived in my inbox overnight. More often than not, as I reply to a message I also want to archive it so I can enjoy the satisfaction of a pristine inbox.
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Whopper Sacrifice Forced to Disable Behavior by Facebook (Updated) — A week after the Whopper Sacrifice application made waves for its creative (and aggressive) use of Facebook friend removals as a way to spread the application, Facebook has forced it to disable the app's functionality, according to the developer.
Brent Frei / Smartsheet:
Value Investing? Answer: Invest in Yourself — The last 8 months I've gone few days without an investment-related question from a friend, colleague or distant relative. Should I stay in? Should I get out? Where should I invest? Should I maintain a cash position? What about T-bills?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Gmail Grew 43 Percent Last Year. AOL Mail And Hotmail Need To Start Worrying. — Google launched Gmail only four years ago, and it is now the fourth most popular e-mail service on the Web after Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail. In 2008, it saw some serious growth …
Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press:
Changes to iTunes prices raise music labels' hopes — Apple's iTunes price changes raise hopes of record labels for new ‘bundling’ strategy — Apple Inc. - , Amazon.com Inc. - , Microsoft Corporation — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Although Apple Inc. announced this month that some songs sold …
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
A Text Arrives. Oh, It's Just an ‘Idol’ Ad. — Some AT&T Wireless customers have voted an emphatic no on a promotion for “American Idol” that popped up on their phones this week. — AT&T, a sponsor of the show, said it sent text messages to a “significant number” of its 75 million customers …
Discussion:
Techdirt, PC World, Bits, Newsome.Org, MarketingVOX, blogs.chron.com and The Huffington Post
Wailin Wong / Chicago Tribune:
Motorola to lay off 4,000 in 2009 — Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. said Wednesday it is laying off 4,000 workers in 2009, with 3,000 of them in the company's flagship mobile phone division. — The layoffs are expected to begin immediately and come on top of a 3,000 workforce reduction announced during the fourth quarter of 2008.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Sprout Builder Kills Its Free Publishing Service — Web 2.0 Called; It Says It's Just An Ad Platform Now — When we saw drag and drop widget creation service Sprout Builder launch at the DEMO conference a year ago this month, we called it far and away our favorite company that launched there.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Sue Decker's Goodbye Memo to the Yahoo Troops — Here is President Sue Decker's memo to the Yahoo (YHOO) staff, which BoomTown neglected to post yesterday, what with all the corporate musical chairs going on over there. — As I said in a post earlier today, Decker's departure was quick and classy …
Lisa Fernandez / Mercury News:
Casino profile details luxurious lifestyle of former Fry's executive — When “Mr. S” showed up in Las Vegas, bellboys, butlers and blackjack dealers made sure they were prepared for the high-rolling Fry's Electronics executive flying in from San Jose with his long list of demands.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Motionbox Raises $6 Million Series C For Its YouTube Alternative — Video sharing site Motionbox has just closed a $6 million Series C funding round led by Constellation Ventures, with Canaan Partners and SAS Investors also participating. Alongside the funding, Motionbox is also announcing …
John Resig / jQuery Blog:
JQUERY 1.3 AND THE JQUERY FOUNDATION — Happy Birthday to jQuery! jQuery is three years old today, after being released way back on January 14th, 2006 at the first BarCampNYC by John Resig. — We have four announcements for you today, we hope you'll enjoy them! — JQUERY 1.3
Elizabeth Holmes / Digits:
New Media Journalism Gets $5 Million from Knight Foundation — Talk about poor timing. Last year, the Knight Foundation announced a new $24 million effort to fund local journalism. A few months later, the Knight foundation 's endowment suffered a big blow, causing the nonprofit to freeze salaries and leave jobs unfilled.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
How Apple could sell 77 million iPhones in 2013 — Two very different iPhone reports — with very different perspectives — were published this week. — One, from Citigroup's Richard Gardner, focused on the short-term. He looked at inventory levels in Apple's supplier channels …
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
UK schools chief begs for Home Access scheme cash — Show me the money - please — The UK government has pleaded with the IT industry to help breathe some life into its Home Access programme. — It wants key players in the tech world to cough up cash towards ensuring all school children …
